Pro Football Focus ranks Chad Kelly as second-best QB in the SEC

Tyler Waddell| 4 years ago

Who are the best quarterbacks in college football right now?

That’s debatable, but it’s easy to declare the Heisman front-runner: Louisville’s Lamar Jackson. Through four games, the true sophomore has already tallied a monstrous total of 1,856 yards (464 per game average) and 25 touchdowns. But after him it gets a little crowded.

Pro Football Focus went ahead and did the work for us, ranking the top 10 best quarterbacks entering Week 5. Not surprisingly, Ole Miss gunslinger Chad Kelly makes the list at No. 9 — but he’s not getting credit for the top spot in the SEC.

Instead, Arkansas’ Austin Allen is. You probably didn’t see that one coming, did you?

Here are the comments made regarding Allen’s lofty ranking:

Allen graded well through the first three weeks of the season but had a breakout performance in the Razorbacks’ 45-24 loss to a very good Texas A&M team. He was 28 of 40 on aimed passes for 372 yards and two touchdowns, grading very well on pass attempts of 10 or more yards and on pressured dropbacks. For the season he ranks third in PFF grades, and has excelled on high-degree-of-difficulty throws. He has been under pressure on 40 percent of his dropbacks, the second-highest rate in the nation, and 63.3 percent of his passing yards have come in the air – the fifth-highest rate in the nation, and a sign that he isn’t just racking up stats with short throws that produce big gains after the catch.

As well as the comments on Kelly:

He ranks fifth in passer rating and third in deep-ball adjusted completion rate – the latter of which is particularly impressive given that 22 percent of his pass attempts travel 20 or more yards downfield, the sixth-highest rate in the nation. Even more impressive: He has performed well despite being under pressure on 36 percent of his dropbacks, the seventh-highest rate in the nation, and 70 percent of his yards have come in the air, the second-highest rate.

Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).

Listen. I know it’s nice to like your own qb and all but look at the facts. Kelly is 2-2, knight has a 50 percent completion percentage, Dobbs can’t throw to save his life, and hurts is a freshman who just so happens to be on the best team in America. Allen has the best qbr, completion percentage, td to interception ratio, and the list goes on. Win some more games and Kelly will be on top again. But Allen is the clear number 2 here.

You have knight too high. A 53% completion rate just isn’t that impressive. Dobbs completion percentage is a little higher but still not particularly impressive at 57%. Dobbs also leads the SEC with 5 interceptions so he certainly couldn’t be second with a meh completion percentage and a high interception rate. The only competition is between Allen, who has the highest completion percentage and Kelly, who has the highest overall QBR.

That’s true, he’s like the little engine that could despite the stats. It baffles me how they keep winning, but here they are at 3-0. I’m starting to like them a bit more each week in spite the majority their fans.

It’s hard to argue against Allen not being better in terms of efficiency so far. We can argue schedule and ill take Kelly any day over Austin Allen, though having AA wouldn’t be bad at all. The thing tipping the scales to Allen’s favor is less turnovers. We can argue scheme as well because Chad is taking more shots, but there has been multiple times where he has held on to the ball too long and then fumbled it away. Watch Allen play against A&M, the Arkansas system looked down right beautiful sometimes the way they executed the PA pass. Allen has the run game going for him. I’ll begrudgingly agree that Allen is right now the #1 guy, but Kelly will take over the spot soon. Plus, after watching Austin Allen take shot after shot against A&M, I became a fan

Try putting strength of schedule into the equation if you want an accurate listing. When you go against defenses that are shoddy, you’ll put up big numbers.

Davis Webb and Patrick Mahomes II haven’t played against anyone. Lesser quarterbacks can put up those kinds of numbers against cupcake teams.

While Deshaun Watson, Baker Mayfield, and Seth Russell played impressive last year, they have yet to give really impressive performances this year, especially considering the quality of talent of the teams they have gone up against.

Lamar Jackson and Austin Allen have each only played against one formidable opponent. They’ve had 3 cupcakes each to pad their stats.

Mitch Trubisky didn’t do well playing the one formidable opponent he went up against this year.

Jake Browning hasn’t played any formidable opponents whatsoever. Hard to measure a “top” quarterback if they don’t play against top teams.

There is one quarterback on this list that put up good stats against the #1 defense in the country. That’s Chad Kelly. 421 yards passing and 43 yards rushing. He should be #1 on the list. No other option when you consider who they have actually played.

Someone not on that list that should be #2 on the list (nation wide, yes) is Trevor Knight. He has shown 2nd most ability, even against quality opponents.

2016 is a new year folks. Don’t go on past man crushes for these guys and look at ALL the facts, not just the facts that fit your narrative to go along with your man crushes.

I have been astonished by what I have seen from Allen so far this year. It’s still too early in the season to 100% trust it, but based on what I have seen, I tend to agree. He has been very NFL-looking.

Really good qbs in and out of SEC but IMO Chad Kelley is top 3 in CFB. He brings it every game and tough as nails. I would put Watson and Mahomes with him. I only put Mahomes in because of the way he runs that “waterbug” offense, its amazing. I think Jackson needs more testing against harder defenses but appears he is real deal as well. Allen is and will be great for 2-3 more years. Arky has to feel good about that